 to jump from $35B today to $2T by 2028.){kind=link}
According to Standard Chartered Bank, the market capitalisation of tokenised real-world assets (RWAs), excluding stablecoins, is expected to rise dramatically from around $35 billion to $2 trillion by 2028, a roughly 5,600% increase.
$2 trillion by 2028
Geoffrey Kendrick of Standard Chartered’s head of digital assets research, said “Stablecoins have laid the groundwork (via increased awareness, liquidity and lending/borrowing on-chain) for other asset classes, from tokenised MMFs [money market funds] to tokenised equities, to move onchain at scale,”
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Because of Ethereum’s dependability, Kendrick anticipates that the “vast majority” of this activity will take place there.
He claimed that Ethereum has been running continuously on the mainnet for more than 10 years. “The fact that other chains are faster or cheaper is irrelevant, in our view,” he stated.
Converting conventional assets into digital tokens on a blockchain to facilitate international trade and settlement is known as tokenisation.
According to Kendrick, by 2028, listed stocks and tokenised money market funds would hold the largest portion of the $2 trillion market, followed by tokenised funds and other less liquid securities.
DeFi in the game
“Of this $2 trillion, we see tokenised money-market funds (driven by corporate use of stablecoins) accounting for $750 billion; tokenised listed equities (once U.S. regulations become clear and DeFi solutions are unleashed) for $750 billion, tokenised funds for $250 billion, and the less liquid segments of private equity, commodities, corporate debt and real estate for the other $250 billion,” Kendrick said.
According to Kendrick, DeFi primarily allowed cryptocurrency locals to lend, borrow, and trade with one another during its early years. However, onchain lending and borrowing activity has expanded across asset classes due to the increase in stablecoin liquidity.
He also stated that the two main areas where DeFi protocols might upend traditional finance, or TradFi, are lending and RWAs. Tokenised RWAs have the potential to disrupt stock exchanges if they can be exchanged on DEXs [decentralised exchanges]. On the other hand, staking is exclusive to digital assets.
Kendrick warned that the primary danger would be if regulatory certainty in the United States does not materialise, which might happen if the government is unable to enact reforms before the midterm elections in November 2026, “but not our base case.”
Kendrick said, if U.S. regulators, most notably the SEC and the CFTC, act in accordance with the law’s objective after the present consultation period concludes in mid-2026, simpler regulations may still be implemented even in the absence of the Clarity Act.
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